As we all know (due to the stellar teachings of our patent-pending POD educational system, used in schools all across the Auraxis colonies!), the Space Pumpkin is an amazing fruit, genetically modified by talented grad students at the accredited* Nanotech University Online. This wonderfruit has literally dozens of proven medical and scientific uses that are beneficial for most humans. Unfortunately due to a recent class-action lawsuit, we are currently unable to discuss these uses, but boy oh boy are they great!

“That sure sounds super interesting, but what does it have to do with me?” you may find yourself asking.

Good question, talented and intelligent soldier! Due to a recent “mix-up”, some of our latest samples were shipped down to the surface of Auraxis instead of the testing facility that they were intended for, because Helen in Order Processing can’t seem to separate her personal life from her job long enough to get her assignments sorted.

Unfortunately due to the Space Pumpkin’s super-fast growth hormone, the samples have already taken root and are now growing on Auraxis. That’s no good for us or our court-ordered suspension of distribution, so we need you, the soldiers of Auraxis, to help us out!

It’s simple, really. Find a Space Pumpkin, destroy it, and bring the seeds (SPS) to a designated SPS-drop off zone, and you’ll get a reward!

Isn’t science amazing?

For a limited time only hunt down space pumpkins and use their seeds to purchase new masks.(these masks are seasonal and can only be equipped during the Nanite of the Living Dead events) Azure Inferno Skull (NC Only) Crimson Inferno Skull (TR Only) Violet Inferno Skull (VS Only) Skull Noir (NS) Inferno Skull (NS) Spectrum Skull (NS) Ichabod Crown (VS/NC/TR) Frankenstein Facepaint (NS) Jester Facepaint (NS) Skull Facepaint (NS) Augmented Brain Chassis (NS) New Alert type - Pumpkin Hunt Space Pumpkins will only spawn during the alert The empire that has the destroyed the most pumpkins at the end of the alert locks the continent The alert duration is 1 hour and triggers at random intervals throughout the day Territory Control alerts have been temporarily disabled Watch out for strange new properties in sticky grenades and mines. Some outposts have been frightened into adopting new names. The NS CandyCannon 3000, The Slasher, and brand new horns are available for purchase. Complete the Halloween 2014 directives to unlock special rewards.

Directives Updates

You can now track your objective progress on the HUD Click on any objective from the directive screens to add a progress tracker on your HUD The tracker is positioned on the left side on the HUD, directly above the mission UI Clicking a tracked objective either from the directive screen or from the HUD will untrack the objective Up to 6 objectives can be tracked at any one time Completed objectives will automatically be untracked A summary screen has been added to the Directives UI that displays the following Overall Character Progress: Shows the directive points earned by your character and his progress towards completing all directives Recently Completed Objectives: Displays the last 6 objectives completed by your character Tracked/Recommended Objectives: This section displays a combination of your tracked and recommended objectives. If you’re tracking 6 objectives, all 6 tracked objectives will show up in this area. If you’re not tracking any objectives, all 6 objectives in this area will be recommended objectives. Directive category progress bars have been added to the navigation buttons Tooltips have been added to each objective to provide more information New Leadership Directive Tree Leadership directives are based on Leadership Ribbons and Squad Beacon spawns. New Events category & Halloween Tree The first of seasonal event directives has been added. This tree has lower requirements than other trees due to the limited time to complete the directives. This tree will be available through November 9th. Objectives Tree Number of required deployed AMS kills has been reduced for all tiers. Objective Support Ribbons now award after 2 events (down from 5). Objective Support Ribbons no longer count Terminal destruction and now hacking terminals (not turrets) will give credit towards the ribbon. Point Control ribbons have been adjusted upwards but now count the new experience ticks and periodic guard xp awards for capture (see experience changes below). Force Recon Tree Spotter ribbon is now awarded every 5 spot assists (down from 10).

Optics Changes

All 1x, 2x, 3.4x and 4x sight reticles have been updated to be dynamically drawn, rather than static geometry. This will better represent where the weapon is aimed when moving, firing, or flinching. Updated existing scopes of all NS weapons with new NS scopes. Color and shape variants for 1X and 2X reticles are now available. Reddot icons now show shape and color of the sights reticle

Flash Improvements

The rumble seat on the flash now faces forward and its passenger can rotate 360 degrees. Flash handling has received an overhaul. It should now be much harder to flip and lose traction less often. Fixed model preview for Flash scout radar.

Experience Reward Changes

Capturing a control point will now grant 4 ticks of 100 xp each during the capture, plus a bonus 25 for controlling the point for a total of 425 xp for a full point capture. Guarding a friendly control point at a contested facility will grant 50 xp every 20 seconds. Kills while in capture range of the capture point will now award a bonus of 100 xp. Multi-kill bonus is now awarded at 2 kills within one second (down from 3). Domination bonus is now awarded at 2 consecutive kills against a player without being killed by that player (down from 3). Nemesis bonus (killing a player who is dominating you) increased to 100 xp. Revenge bonus increased to 50 xp (up from something less significant). MAX kill bonus increased to 200 xp (up from 20). Deploy bonus renamed to “Transport Assist” in all places where it was referenced (including Directives). These are awarded when a player leaves your vehicle and gets a kill within a couple minutes, provided you are still in the vehicle. Transport Assist is now equivalent to a kill, 100 xp (up from 50). Driver assist XP for when the gunner gets kills is now equivalent to a kill, 100 xp (up from 75).

Support Grenade Assists

EMP, Flash, and Concussion grenades now award assist experience if the target is killed by another player while under the effect of your grenade. Ribbons and Medals for EMP, Flash, and Concussion grenades have been added or reworked to be based on these assists instead of kills.

Vehicle Destruction Kill Credit

Destroying a vehicle will now count as a kill for all weapon medals and most directives. Only directives that require you to kill a specific target (ex: Enemy Infiltrators or MAX) do not count a vehicle kill for credit. Any vehicle counts as 1 kill. This is in addition to the driver and any passengers you may also kill. For example, destroying a fully crewed Prowler will be considered 3 kills. The vehicle does not have to be occupied to be credited for a kill, so you’ll still get credit for suiciders/bailures.

Spawn Kill Changes

Spawn kills are now worth 0 xp across the board. Time after spawn before a player is not considered a spawn kill increased to 12 seconds (up from 10). XP earned before a player is not considered a spawn kill increased to 100 (up from 5). Spawn kill is still considered time since spawn or xp earned, whichever happens first (this is unchanged, only the values listed above were tuned). Other changes to spawn kills will be in a later update, including making freshly revived players not count as a spawn kill, and removing spawn kills from awarding credit towards kills, medals, ribbons, or directives.

Cloaking Fixes

Visual effects such as lumifiber and helmet particles are now disabled while stealthed. Improved performance and visual quality of stealth on lowest graphic settings. Cloaked objects will now look the same across all graphics settings. Fixed a bug where sometimes an Infiltrator's head and gun would be visible while the body is cloaked. Flashes no longer cast a shadow while stealthed. Fixed a bug where sometimes Flash headlights would be visible while stealthed.

Hossin Updates

The following bases have been redone. SRP Nanite Relay Station Gourney Dam Kessel’s Crossing Staggered Mesa Outpost redone and renamed to Bunker J993 Fixed various bugs from grass growing through the floor of buildings, to holes in the terrain, to shield generators being inside of objects.

Balance

Striker The T2 Striker (and variants) can now be dumbfired and is no longer able to lock-on to targets. While in flight, the rockets will automatically lock-on to hostile aircraft if they pass by within range. T9 CARV Annual Terran Republic Military performance review has revealed an unacceptable level of inaccuracy among Republic heavy assault soldiers. Loyal weapons engineers have corrected this with a minor improvement to the horizontal control of the venerable T9 CARV unification platform. The T9's new replication schematics have been updated on all Republic equipment terminals and deployment facilities. Horizontal recoil reduced to .21375 (down from .225).

Depot

Brand new voice packs have been added! Go, get to da depot!! C’mon, do it now! New horns are available for the Scythe, Reaver and Mosquito. A new horn is available for the Galaxy. It may or may not sound like a whale. Check the Depot for a new set of country flags (Denmark, EU, Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Wales, and Belgium). Reminder that more flags will come in as copyright processing occurs. Known issue: The dimensions of the new flags are off (too square), which will be fixed in a future update.

Membership

The 50% Membership XP bonus has been moved from the Auraxium tier to the Copper tier. The cert cap has been raised for members to 50,000. Non-Members will no longer gain certs while offline. We've done this for two reasons: Offline cert earning is not communicated effectively as a general login incentive and does not achieve its goals. Removal from non-members increases the overall benefit of being a Member.

General

The S-AMS certification for the Sunderer is now auto-granted, making it available to all players by default. Points spent on it before this change have been refunded. For vehicles, there is now heavy bullet impact audio. This is intended to provide better feedback when your vehicle is being struck by light fire against heavy fire. For example, getting hit with a tank buster will now sound different than getting hit with an assault rifle. Yell chat now works from beyond the grave. Spooky. Outfit MOTD shows up in chat on login, and as a notification + chat when changed. Corrected an issue that was preventing a non squad leader from inviting players to the squad they are in from the friends list. Members of a squad that are not the leader will now be able to select a players name in chat and invite them to the squad. When done it will prompt the squad leader with a request to invite that player. Updated location of shields on second floor of Towers. RIP Hallway of Death. Added a timer to the Death Screen show how long you have to be revived. Moved to the "Being Revived" indicator to the lower section of the screen closer to the Spawn buttons. Named a base to honor a hero of Auraxis (It’s on Hossin). Energy Bridge Terminals (Heyoka Chemical Lab) no longer have a neutral state. They can also now be flipped by any class to your faction, but Infiltrators with hacking certifications do so much faster. This is to make the bridges more intuitive to learn, and to eliminate a player on your own team from doing the ‘wrong’ thing by unknowingly giving the enemy access to cross the bridges. Texture updates to the Mosquito and Prowler. S12 Renegade now uses circle (shotgun style) reticle Squad Logistics System for Valkyrie now has unique icon. Increased range when your quick deploy location resets. Previously your quick deploy location would change if you died 300 meters from it. We’ve upped this to 400 meters. Updated login queue page for full zones and servers

Bugs Fixed

NC Iron sight missing the bright spot from the front sight The Platoon Conquest ribbon should now be working. Amerish, Moss Ravine: Removed lift pad in front of spawn room teleporter (PS-464) Amerish: Jagged Lance Mine: Players can inside the rock formation at /loc 2571.670 77.760 2255.380 Amerish: Sungrey Amp Station: Strange audio effects near /loc 2229.410 85.540 1176.920 Changing vehicle mouse sensitivity will not take effect until you switch seats (PS-215) Claymores can be placed on walls if the player deploys it while close to a wall (PS-9) Cloaking: Reticle on optics disappears when player cloaks (PS-422) Consumables: Unequipping Grenade Bandolier or Utility Pouch can result in reserve consumables Continent locked Amerish does not reward 50% consumable bonus (PS-518) Continent Locking: Continent territory control after reset does not match up with warp gate rotation Continent Locking: Outfit capture does not reset after the continent unlocks and regions reset Damage assist XP does not clear when a vehicle is repaired Decal on the Prowler and Galaxy do not display Deploying your sunderer now sets your quick respawn location to that sunderer. You will no longer get sunder attack warning messages for a sunderer that you have never interacted with. Directives: Objective progression does not display properly for previous tiers Eclipse VE3A: Medals don't appear to be granting properly Esamir: Multiple box shaped server areas floating in the sky Exploit: Amerish: Mekala's Auxiliary Compound: Players able to get inside base tower through a hole at /loc -198.527 71.310 1652.894 Exploit: Hossin: Hurakan Western Pass: Players can get inside the terrain and shoot out at /loc -275.450 79.120 -1404.480 Fix for auto-resupply not functioning correctly. Auto-resupply settings have been wiped and default to on. (If you don't want a grenade to resupply, make sure to uncheck that checkbox.) Fixed a bug where sometimes an infiltrator's head and gun would be visible while the body is cloaked. (PS-7) Fixed a spelling error on a German loading screen. Fixed an error in the French description for Heroic Boosts. Fixed incorrect tooltip for Valkyrie Auraxium Lumifiber Fixed missing title for Valkyrie nose cannon slot in the Loadout page Flash attachments no longer affect the visual appearance of stealth. Flash Directive Master tier now shows correct icon. Hossin: Abomination Point: Capture point is not visible Hossin: Construction Site Lambda: Water texture missing at /loc -1015.630 4.000 77.310 Hossin: Hurakan Amp Station: Airpad does not resupply ammo at /loc -310.240 101.660 -968.610 (PS-140) Hossin: Iron Quay: Tree branches clipping through the ceiling at /loc 353.150 8.230 -1843.650 Hossin: SCU Shields are invisible when you are in close proximity (PS-186) Hossin: The Finger: The foot of the facility is floating at /loc 2494.910 81.950 2593.590 Hossin: Vex Biologics: Grass clipping through the floor at /loc 2006.350 56.520 1379.950 Hossin: Western Warpgate: Ammo packs float if dropped at /loc 1885.660 25.300 -2964.220 Indar: Hvar Northgate Garrison: Player can clip into the large container Indar: Tree root is not connected to terrain close to Peris Eastern Grove Keybindings: EU Keyboard: Cannot bind/use the [<>] key Keybindings: The "Open Squad/Platoon Page" keybinding cannot be used to close the screen Loadout Menu: Pressing “Spacebar” at loadout screen will automatically switch the loadout to the 10th slot Made it so engineers switch back to their previously equipped item after deploying an ammunition pack using the "use ability" key instead of always switching to their primary weapon. Max aircraft altitude depends on where the aircraft is spawned (PS-65) Medic Heal Ribbon is now awarded every 10 healing xp events. Only events which reward XP are counted. Medic Shielding Ribbon is now awarded every 10 shielding xp events. Only events which reward XP are counted. Motion Assist XP sometimes not being granted when overlapping with other sensors Multiple scopes with red dot's aren't red NC LA1 Anchor: Reload audio is not in sync with reload NC MAX weapons are disabled if using MAX punch while turning the Aegis shield off (PS-330) NC: Blitz GD-10: Advanced Laser Sight rail attachment is floating (PS-317) NC: NC4-FB Mag-Shot: Gold texture is washed out NC: NC4-FB Mag-Shot: Weapon icon does not display gold trim No-deploy zone due to other deployed Sunderer does not display on mini map NS weapon sight descriptions should now be localized. Numpad cannot be used to open a text field (PS-159) Numpad enter cannot be used to send messages (PS-335) Player is stuck in place for nearly 5 seconds after the loading screen is dismissed Players can no longer use auto join squad to bypass squad friend only / guild only restrictions. (PS-28) Players who are vehicle owners will not receive Grief or damage when some other player physicslly collide with the vehicle Players who fail to respawn at a location will no longer see their character dead, they will just stay in the spawn selection screen. Players will no longer see locked vehicles as squad spawn options. Several UI strings are now localized. Spotting: [Q] brings up an empty menu when there is no target (PS-227) Squad Deploy no longer spawns players on the squad beacon Squad Leader: Newly appointed squad leaders do not have a spawn beacon until they resupply (PS-59) Suarva South Fortress: Sand is showing through the facility floor near /loc 1974.980 71.580 -2114.750 Sunderer: Exterior: Rail guards have a permanent green/forest camo applied Sunderer: S-AMS: There is a delay before you can use to deploy [*]Switching to Underbarrel mode of the Eclipse VE3A should now show you an ammo count instead of heat meter. (PS-342) [*]Terminal loadout defaults to the 10th loadout when pressing spacebar [*]The NC Auraxium Godsaw and Gauss Prime are now using the correct models. [*]TR Eclipse Helmet [ID: 77362] Does not apply camo [*]TR Roughneck misidentifies enemy Harasser (PS-164) [*]TR: Prowler: Anchored Mode: There is a delay before you can use to deploy [*]Tracking Bug: Exploit: Players can get in a state where they are invincible [*]Tracking Bug: Jump jets intermittently failing to trigger [*]Tracking Issue: Players are seeing [Null] for a Deploy prompt on the death screen [*]Tutorial Banners are displaying white from far away [*]Unable to use/bind Microsoft gamepad (PS-238) [*]Unoccupied squad spawn vehicles are not immediately removed from deployment [*]Updated String for some new Key Bindings. Toggle Gear Slot 1 & 2 - Toggles between your primary and secondary gear slots. Utility Slot - Equips your current Utility Item Tool Slot - Equips your tool or 3rd gear slot (PS-171) [*]Valkyrie rear landing gear now rests better/touches the ground [*]Valkyrie: Cockpit Glass is missing when Cyan Glass is equipped [*]VS: Love Vehicle Decal is missing from inventory [*]VS: MAX: Camos do not get applied to the MAX Xenoxus Helmet [*]VS: Medic Vehicle Decal is not being displayed on vehicles [*]HUD Icon for Counter Intelligence Implant is very small and difficult to see [*]Outfit Recruitment: Players unable to accept/deny pending applications [*]WDS capture/defence point is shown on the heat map filter on map